Motorcyclist killed in Zephyrhills

ZEPHYRHILLS - A Zephyrhills man died Thursday evening when he was thrown from his motorcycle after a collision with a pickup truck, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

Michael L. Herron, 39, of was traveling eastbound on a 1999 Honda motorcycle on State Road 54 near Evans Road a little before 6 p.m., the report said.

A 1998 Dodge pickup truck driven by Michael J. Deveau, 50, of Zephyrhills, was parked in a driveway, waiting to turn left onto State Road 54. Deveau didn't see Herron's motorcycle approaching and turned onto the road, the FHP said.

The left front and side of the motorcycle hit the truck, went airborne and then landed on an SUV parked at a shopping center.

Herron died at the scene. Deveau suffered minor injuries. The driver and passenger of the third vehicle -- Dennis E. Willey, 64, and Margaret A. Willey, 53, both of Zephyrhills -- were not injured.

The Highway Patrol said charges are pending.

-- Times Staff Writer

Ybor sushi restaurant fire drips water into Improv

TAMPA -- An Ybor City sushi restaurant employee received first degree burns on his arms and face while cleaning behind a stove Thursday.

Salvador Diaz, 30, was working at Samuri Blue, 1600 E 8th Ave., when he accidentally broke a natural gas line supplying the stove by pulling the stove too far from the wall, causing a flash fire.

Tampa Fire Rescue responded to the fire alarm at 9:21 p.m. The sprinkler system was activated by the fire and continued to stream after firefighters arrived, pouring downstairs and causing damage to the Improv Comedy Theater.

Diaz was taken to Tampa General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Tampa Fire Capt. Bill Wade said. Damage from the fire was minimal, he said.

But water damage is expected to be several thousand dollars. No word on when either the restaurant or the Improv will reopen.

-- Rebecca Catalanello

Motorcyclist dies in Pasco crash

ZEPHYRHILLS -- A motorcyclist died after a pickup turned in front of him shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday night.

Michael Herron, 39 of Zephyrhills, was traveling east on S.R. 54 near Evans Road when the driver of a pickup failed to see him and turned onto S.R. 54 in front of him. The truck had been facing south in the entrance of "A Car Lot Inc" and made a left, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Herron tried to stop but couldn't and collided with the truck. He was ejected from the motorcycle, which collided with a third vehicle. Herron, who was not wearing a helmet, died at the scene, troopers said.

The driver of the pickup, Michael J. Deveau, 50, suffered minor injuries. The people in the third vehicle were unhurt.

--Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer

Fire burns house in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG -- Three people lost their home when a fire damaged a house at 1500 7th St. S. tonight.

About 7:45 p.m., firefighters extinguished a blaze on a single-story wood frame house. Smoke and water damaged the entire building. There was no working smoke alarm in the house.

Paramedics treated one occupant at the scene but no one was taken to the hospital. St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue estimated the damage at about $50,000. The American Red Cross helped three adults find temporary housing.

--Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer

St. Pete: Burned house had no smoke alarm

ST. PETERSBURG -- Firefighters are still trying to determine what started a fire that caused about $50,000 in damage to a house at 1500 Seventh St. S this evening.

Firefighters were called to the home at 7:46 p.m. and arrived within four minutes to find smoke and heavy fire coming from the single story, wood-framed house, fire officials said. Crews were able to put the fire out within 15 minutes, but there was a lot of damage to the interior and garage from the fire, heavy smoke and water.

One of the home's three adult occupants was treated at the scene by paramedics, but was not transported to the hospital. Officials put an approximate value of the house at about $99,500.

The American Red Cross was called in to help the occupants with lodging. Fire officials noted that there was not a working smoking alarm in the house.

--Times staff

Linda Bollea has run out of money

CLEARWATER -- Linda Bollea, wife of wrestler Hulk Hogan, is out of money -- despite receiving $40,000 a month in temporary alimony payments.

In a hearing today on other matters, one of Linda Bollea's attorneys asked Judge George W. Greer to set a hearing next month to talk about unfreezing some of the divorcing couple's assets for Linda's use.

An attorney for Hulk Hogan said she wanted to see some proof from Linda's attorneys that the wrestling star's wife was tapped out.

"They have to tell me why she's out of money. They have to show me in bank statements," said Ann Loughridge Kerr, whose client is Hulk Hogan, legal name Terry Bollea.

In August, both sides in the divorce agreed Linda Bollea would get temporary alimony payments of $40,000 per month. Terry Bollea also agreed to pay some monthly costs like repair and maintenance of their home on Willadel Drive, where Linda now lives.

But Linda Bollea's side said the husband is refusing to pay for cable, pest control, window washing and their security system.

Greer told Terry Bollea's attorneys to pay the cable, pest control and window washing bills -- but not the security system payments. That is not Terry Bollea's responsibility, he said.

--Jonathan Abel, Times Staff Writer

Armed man robs St. Petersburg bank

ST. PETERSBURG -- A man produced a handgun and took off with cash in a robbery of the Florida Bank at 3065 34th Street North about 2 p.m. today.

Police described the robber as a Hispanic man, about 20 to 30 years old, who wore a khaki work shirt over a dark green long sleeve shirt, a khaki hat, sunglasses and stonewashed black jeans. Investigators say he took off on foot.

The man matched the description of a man suspected in several other Pinellas County bank robberies.

Anyone with information is asked to call the non-emergency number at 727-893-7780 or the Robbery unit at 727-893-7179.

--Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer

Tampa woman called 911 from car trunk before she died, police say

TAMPA -- Sometime before she died, Jennifer Johnson called a 911 operator to say she was in the trunk of a vehicle, Tampa police say.

Johnson, 31, was found dead Tuesday in an abandoned Lakeland house. The last time Johnson was seen alive, she was arguing with ex-boyfriend Vincent Brown at the Apollo Club late Friday. After that, police said, she went to Brown's parents' house at 3 a.m.

Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said Johnson's call to Plant City police 911 came in after 3 a.m. Saturday. Investigators would not release details about the call, saying it was critical to establishing a timeline for when Johnson was abducted and when and how she died.

"It is a very disturbing call, a very chilling call," McElroy said.

Brown, who has been named a person of interest in the case, is being held at the Orient Road Jail on unrelated charges. He remains uncooperative in the investigation, McElroy said.

Rebecca Catalanello, Times Staff Writer

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Rapist gets 25 years for 1997 attack

TAMPA -- A convicted sex offender has pleaded guilty to a 1997 sexual battery that took nearly a decade to solve.

Kenneth Dehart, 37, was sentenced this week to 25 years in prison.

His victim was in court to see Dehart for the first time in person since he attacked her on Sept. 4, 1997, prosecutor Rita Peters said, but she did not say anything before his sentencing.

The victim was 46 when he raped her after talking his way into her Tampa business. He told her that he'd committed sexual battery 200 times before.

Tampa police collected DNA evidence from the victim immediately after the attack. Nine years passed before a national DNA database linked the evidence to Dehart.

Colleen Jenkins, Times Staff Writer

[Photo: Times files]

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Tampa teen died in frat initiation at N.C. school, police say

A Lenior-Rhyne University student from Tampa who died after an accidental head injury Monday night was participating in a fraternity initiation event at the time of his death, according to the Catawba County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina.

Harrison Kowiak (pictured), 19, a graduate of Wharton High School and sophomore at the private liberal arts college in Hickory, N.C., died during a game similar to "capture the flag" -- a Theta Chi fraternity initiation activity, according to sheriff's Capt. Roy Brown. There were 17 people participating in the activity. Brown said he would not call the event "hazing."

Representatives from Theta Chi's national office were not immediately available to comment.

Tampa council questions mayor's plan for HUD money

TAMPA -- City Council members today put a kink in Mayor Pam Iorio's plans for spending $13.6-million in federal money available through Neighborhood Stabilization Act. At issue is Iorio's proposal to use $7-million to buy 40 abandoned, foreclosed homes, tear them down and build new homes in their place. Council member John Dingfelder said the money might go further if used to rehab homes instead.

Iorio held a news conference last week to unveil the program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She proposed using the money to buy 110 abandoned, foreclosed homes, mostly in Sulphur Springs. Forty of those would be renovated and sold, another 40 would be torn down, and 30 would be made available for rent. The council approved the plan Thursday so the city could meet the Dec. 1 deadline for getting it to HUD. But it will take a closer look at the details at a workshop early next year. "I want us to be able to continue to put our noses under this tent," Dingfelder said.

Janet Zink, Times Staff Writer

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Police: Man put hanger down child's throat

ST. PETERSBURG -- James Spencer Adams said he was roughhousing, that it was just an accident.

Well the St. Petersburg Police Department says neither reason can possibly explain why a 63-year-old man would jam the hook-end of a plastic hanger down an 8-year-old boy's throat on Wednesday night.

"There is no rhyme or reason," said Sgt. Katy Connor-Dubina. "I don't have a clue why he wold do this."

The hanger caused a puncture which left the boy bleeding from his mouth, said Dubina, who heads the crimes against children unit. The hanger also tore the victim's tonsils and caused other internal injuries that required him to sent to All Children's Hospital.

The boy went to a relative, the relative took him to the hospital, doctors called the Department of Children and Families, and state workers called police.

That's why Adams (pictured), was arrested early this morning on a charge of aggravated child abuse. He is being held in the Pinellas County jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The identity of the 8-year-old boy and his relationship to Adams are being withheld by the St. Petersburg Times because of the nature of the crime. The report says Adams admitted to "guiding the hanger" into the child's mouth around 8 p.m. Wednesday and then cleaning blood from it.

But the sergeant used both hands to demonstrate how the 63-year-old had to have held the hanger on either end while shoving it down the boy's throat -- and police believe he may have pinned the child to the ground while he did it. The boy told police he never wanted to roughhouse with the 63-year-old.

The victim's soft palate and posterior pharynx were also damaged, the report said. The child's condition at the hospital is unknown today.

Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer

[Photo: Pinellas Country Sheriff's Office]

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Titanic discoverer now explores seas remotely

ST. PETE BEACH -- Robert Ballard is best known as the man who found the wreckage of the Titanic, but he also is a geologist, educator and director of the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. Ballard, 66, is in the Tampa Bay area for the Coastal Cities Conference, which has attracted participants from 29 countries. He spoke today to the St. Petersburg Times about his discoveries, and how he now monitors robot submarines from his New England offices instead of spending long bouts at sea.

Q: Which of those realms -- explorer, archeology, geology -- do you think has given you the most enjoyment?

A: Explorer. I like the concept of exploration. My heroes are Lewis and Clark and Capt. James Cook and Charles Darwin and the people who went because it was there, or they didn't know what was there. I love going where no one has gone before on the planet Earth.

Tampa council postpones billboard vote

TAMPA -- The Tampa City Council postponed a vote today on a settlement agreement with two billboard companies that would pave the way for digital billboards within city boundaries.

Council members said they wanted more time to review the agreement and hear from neighbors before enacting a policy that would dictate where the signs could go and how many the companies could put up.

"This is a very significant issue. It's a policy change under the guise of a settlement agreement,'' said council member Linda Saul-Sena.

The agreement is intended to resolve a decadelong dispute. It would require the billboard companies to take down nearly 90 billboards on Kennedy Boulevard, Florida Avenue and other streets. But the companies could put up new billboards to replace more than 180 that have come down in previous years.

The agreement would allow the companies to put up one digital billboard for every three they took down.

Janet Zink

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Two Valrico condos damaged by fire

VALRICO -- Two residences were damaged in a fire late this morning at the Pine Grove condominiums.

Hillsborough County firefighters were called to the 3600 block of Pine Knot Drive after a resident got out of the shower and smelled smoke. The complex is south of Bloomingdale Avenue and east of Bell Shoals Road.

The fire was under control by 12:23 p.m.

Please return to tampabay.com for updates.

Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer

[Photo: Firefighters finish their work while an investigation gets underway to determined what caused a three alarm fire at a home in Pine Grove Condominiums. Martha Rial, Times]

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Prosecutor: Gotti Sr. okayed Tampa mob activity

TAMPA -- John Gotti Jr. got his father's approval in the late 1980s to expand the Gambino crime family into Tampa through a local valet parking business, a federal prosecutor said today in court.

Gotti Jr. faces charges in Tampa of federal racketeering and murder related to three killings in New York 10 years ago. His defense attorney wants the case moved back to New York. Federal prosecutors want to keep it here.

"This case is here because this is where Mr. Gotti elected to plant a Gambino crime family flag," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant told U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, who will make the call.

Unidentified man dies after Skyway jump

TAMPA -- A man who jumped from the Sunshine Skyway bridge did not survive the fall, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

It happened about 4 a.m. The man has not been identified.

Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer

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Zephyrhills mobile home burns

ZEPHYRHILLS -- A mobile home in Pasco County caught fire about 4:30 this morning, according to Pasco County Fire Rescue. No one was injured.

The man who lived at 4644 Kimball Court escaped and was not hospitalized, rescuers said. The American Red Cross will help him find shelter.

It is not known what started the fire or how long it took to put out, but rescuers are no longer on the scene.

Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer

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Old John's Pass Bridge pilings demolished

TREASURE ISLAND -- Three dolphins forced the delay of the remains of the old northbound span of John's Pass Bridge for 40 minutes.

At 8:41 a.m., crews detonated the underwater charges and imploded the pilings that were nearly all that remained of the old span. They did this after making sure the dolphins had made their way into the gulf, said Kris Carson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation.

A few dozen people gathered in nearby shops and restaurants to see the demolition even though transportation officials said not to expect too much. "It's not like a huge Hollywood movie explosion," Carson said Wednesday. "It's like a little hiccup under the water. To be honest, it's not exciting."

Missing St. Petersburg man found

ST. PETERSBURG -- An 82-year-old man who went missing from St. Petersburg on Wednesday night was found by Bradenton police early this morning.

Malcolm Clay Mitchell (pictured) has dementia. A Silver Alert for the man was issued by the St. Petersburg Police Department around 6 p.m. Wednesday. Mitchell had left his 38th Avenue N home that morning in the family's Chevrolet Suburban.

Mitchell was found by police around 3 a.m. today after his vehicle had a flat tire. He has been reunited with his family and was not injured, according to St. Petersburg police.

Kim Wilmath and Jamal Thalji, Times staff writers

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Oldsmar man charged in fatal April crash

TAMPA -- A 35-year-old Oldsmar man was arrested Wednesday on DUI-manslaughter charges in connection with an April crash that killed a Tampa woman, according to Florida Highway Patrol.

In the early morning of April 19, deputies say, Kevin Michael Smith, left, of 213 Bay Arbor Woods, was driving a 2000 Chevrolet Silverado pickup west at high speed in the outside lane of Hillsborough Avenue. Oscar J. Gonzalez, 46, of Tampa, was driving a 1999 Dodge Ram west in the same lane. Just east of Double Branch Road, the front of Smith's truck collided with the rear of Gonzalez's, and both vehicles spun out of control across Hillsborough Avenue.

Smith's vehicle flipped, and his front-seat passenger, 43-year-old Vickie D. Colonna, of Tampa, was thrown onto the road, deputies said. Colonna died later that day at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Toxicology results revealed that Smith's blood alcohol concentration after the crash was 0.224, nearly three times the level at which a person is deemed impaired, deputies said. Smith was charged Wednesday with DUI-manslaughter and careless driving. He was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail and was released later that day on $50,000 bail, deputies said.

Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer

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Another cold morning, and it's going to last

It might be difficult this morning to get out from under the covers. Temperatures remain in the 30s and 40s around the bay area, and a light wind with clear skies mean a good chance for frost.

National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Davis said that some areas in the Nature Coast and north of Hernando County are experiencing freezing conditions. Brooksville is at 28 degrees. It's 29 degrees in Levy County.

A farmer from Parksdale Farms in Dover said workers were preparing to turn on the freeze-deterring sprinklers. He said it was about 36 degrees there and they weren't taking any chances.

It's warmer in the bay area, with colder interior locations near the mid 30s, Davis said. New Port Richey and Lutz posted about 34 degrees. Near the coast, temperatures are mostly in the 40s. At Tampa International Airport, it's 45 degrees, and it's 44 in St. Petersburg.

The National Weather Service won't know if any records have been broken until all the official observations are collected later this morning, but Plant City is flirting with its record low of 34 degrees for this date, and Tarpon Springs is nearing its record of 36.

When the sun rises between 7 and 8 a.m., it will start to warm up. By 10 a.m. the temperatures should be in the upper 60s, Davis said. There's another small cold front coming in behind this one, he said. It should drop in tomorrow just as this front heads out.

"Bundle up," Davis said.

It won't be as cold for the rest of the week, but it'll still be below normal, Davis said. Temperatures should start to warm up late Saturday or early Sunday.

Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer

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Planning Council votes against Tierra Verde annexation

St. Petersburg lacks the capacity to provide municipal services to Tierra Verde, according to the Pinellas Planning Council. The 13-member elected body on Thursday voted against a city report that states that St. Petersburg can service North Tierra Verde under its proposed annexation agreement.

The Planning Council’s vote was mostly symbolic and will not legally prevent the City Council from approving the annexation Friday as planned.

“It’s just basically, this is what people in the community think of what you are doing,” said Brian Smith, the county’s planning director.

Related content:

Howard Troxler: Misusing power in St. Pete

Map: See which area is being considered for annexation

Letter: County commissioner wants city to wait

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